Cookies on HFTP Bytes

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; others help us give you the best possible user experience.By using the site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. However, you can change your cookie settings at any time. Read our Privacy Notice to learn more.

21 November 2018

When Airbnb was founded ten years ago, it brought a unique concept to the market: find travel accommodations that feel like home.But as the model has gained popularity, some of the stays have come to feel too much like home. Staying at some Airbnbs can feel like a game of Russian roulette: will this be the one with the kindly landlord who is responsive but far from the premises? Or will you be listening to the sound of their kids screaming through the night?Its meteoric rise shows there's an appetite for the model, but many people want the reliability that a hotel can provide, while offering the "like a local" feel that home-stays can bring.That's the thinking behind Sonder, a company that marries the two travel experiences.The idea began in 2012, when founders Lucas Pellan and Montreal-born Francis Davidson stayed at a home they had booked for a couple days. They couldn't get in touch with the host to find out how they were supposed to get inside. When they did make it in (the key under the doormat, naturally), they found half-eaten food in the fridge and dog hair covering the furniture. They opted to leave the rental and go for an apartment instead. While it was free of dog hair and debris, it was a non-notable room surrounded by sterile chain restaurants.It spurred the pair to create a new kind of home-stay experience: Sonder manages apartments in trendy neighbourhoods through major cities, and opens them up to travellers for short stays. What makes the company notably differs from Airbnb is the hotel-like amenities, like toiletries, a cleaning service, 24/7 concierge and attention to detail in the design.

ONE NewsletterMANY SourcesBrought to you by HFTP

According to Egyptian travel company Travco Group, hotel bookings in the country are on the rise again as tourists return after seven years of political turmoil and security concerns following 2011's Arab Spring and militant attacks.

In the food-and-beverage arena, it’s not always easy to understand the value and impact of a single dollar. But spending a dollar here, rather than spending it there, can make an enormous difference to a hotel’s top and bottom lines.

When you are planning a vacation, you spend a lot of time researching the hotels you want to stay in, the places you visit, restaurants, shopping, and other things. You read reviews and experiences of other travelers. Folks at Travel + Leisure asked their readers to rate various hotels based on their location, facilities, food, service, and overall value. Here are the top 10 best hotels in the world in 2018 based on Travel + Leisure's survey.Top 10 best hotels in the worldRemember that this list is not about the most expensive hotels or the most luxurious ones. It's all about hotels that travelers think are best in terms of facilities, food, service, and overall value. So, without further ado, let's check out the top 10 best hotels in the world.10- Nayara Springs, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa RicaIt scored 97.04 out of 100 in Travel + Leisure's survey. It was also voted the best luxury hotel in 2016 and 2017 in a survey conducted by TripAdvisor. Nayara Springs is located atop a cliff surrounded by tropical gardens and emerald forests. It costs around $750 per night on average, though you can get a room there for as low as $630 in October. The hotel has two giant pools, an award-winning spa, a piano lounge and bar, and a private plunge pool. It also arranges daily adventurous activities such as canyoning and water-rafting.

Offering local tours and activities is a multibillion-dollar business, with the online travel agencies having shown a growing interest in this sector. Expedia alone is looking to grow its local tours and activities sales fivefold – from approximately $400 million a year to over $2 billion.

The hospitality industry is no stranger to mergers &amp; acquisitions. In fact, it seems that every few months we hear about a new big purchase; most recently Hyatt purchased Two Roads Hospitality, and earlier this year, Wyndham bought LaQuinta. At TrustYou, we are no stranger to our customers’ buys and buy-outs. And a topic that inevitably rises to the surface is: what hotel technology will we keep using, and what do we need to change?

By Armand Rabinowitz

The API is the unit that allows platforms to exist, and the single most important ingredient to allow a technical ecosystem to thrive. Yet they are not transparent. HTNG's Armand Rabinowitz describes an initiative to change this. As he puts it: It's all about the power of a community working together to get something done.

While exhibiting at World Travel Market 2018, hotel technology leader Pegasus Solutions will be showcasing its newest cloud-based product: Pegasus Enterprise Analytics. This advanced solution integrates directly with the powerful Pegasus Reservations Platform used by hotel brands, management companies, and independent hotels to manage availability, rates and inventory across all of their channels at the click of a button.

Pegasus Solutions is pleased to announce that AMERON Hotels has signed a multi-year agreement for a variety of products including the Pegasus Reservations Platform, Pegasus Connect, and Utell Voice Services.

The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is changing every facet of manufacturing. As factories automate data collection and communication, they create an interconnected network of machines and systems, opening up an information superhighway. IIoT makes a factory more efficient, and cost effective, with elements like predictive maintenance, lean manufacturing, and AI integration.

The concept of total hotel revenue management industry has been discussed for years, to the point where some in the revenue management discipline are asking why the topic is still being discussed. It came up earlier this year at a roundtable hosted by Sherri Kimes in Singapore, where a group of RMS professionals and hotel executives spoke to students about the current and future state of revenue management. Total revenue optimization is still the future of our discipline. Here is where we are on the path to achieving the long-heralded concept of total revenue management for hotels.

Worldwide, the hotel industry relies on the airline industry to literally carry its demand. Sure, there are drive markets with little reliance on airlift, but the vast majority of the industry depends on guests arriving via airplane.

U.S. travelers rely on their smartphones for every part of their journey, from using social media posts from friends and family to research leisure trips to sharing post-trip feedback. In Travelport’s "2018 Digital Traveler Survey" of 16,000 travelers from 25 countries, trends among respondents from the U.S. indicate that mobile devices are as vital for leisure travel as for other aspects of everyday life.

As online gaming continues its upward trajectory, generating millions of dollars in revenue, experts are again questioning whether the convenience and accessibility has helped or hurt Atlantic City casinos.

Two Roads Hospitality selected Volara as its official voice technology platform. Motif Seattle, A Destination Hotel, and Thompson Seattle are already live with Amazon’s Alexa technology powered by Volara and Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel Valley, Calif., will begin its rollout later this month.

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Haley Hotel unveiled its partnership with OpenKey for universal mobile access. Guests can check in and check out remotely; receive a room assignment, hotel directions and Wi-Fi codes; and easily access their room and common area doors from their mobile device.

By Lee Pillsbury

What lies ahead for the hotel industry? No one knows. We cannot see where economic indicators will go, where the next financial or political crisis will come from, or how consumer tastes will evolve in the future. As Lee Pillsbury argues, what we do know is that the pace of change is not only continuing but accelerating, across industries - and that the most critical skillset any hotel manager, owner or brand executive can have, is the ability to see around the corner.

In the hospitality industry, customer experience is king. At the same time, companies face fierce competition for each customer dollar and have to deliver outstanding service with ever-increasing efficiency. Automation - especially voice processing, artificial intelligence, smart devices, and robotic process automation - can help with all three of these competing challenges.Today's customers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. From research, to bookings, to their actual en-route or on-property experience, customers demand more. They want to use any device, tailored to the way they live and work. They want to immerse themselves in their leisure experience, and they don't want to have to worry about the technology.Hospitality firms are improving customer experience through natural language interaction, high-end digital experiences and with AI algorithms to help guide their leisure choices. They are also increasingly using automation and smart devices to reduce loss, speed up check-in and check-out and provide entertainment and comfort features exceeding those found in a typical home.Customers are increasingly seeing service where the curtains gently open 15 minutes after the alarm goes off, where they can ask Alexa for room service, or they can have their room cleaned based on the service team knowing the room is vacant.Improving service to their customers drives repeat business and the tailored experience provided by automation helps enable that part of the growth curve. Additionally, hospitality firms want to grow by capturing more market share, opening up new and emerging markets.Automation can help by tailoring the experience to the customer based on country or buying behavior. A customer in China books differently than a customer in France! Further, automation can help hospitality firms use detailed quantitative analytics to drive what routes generate the most revenue, which locations are best for new properties and how to distribute luxury versus budget offerings based on customer spend and feedback.

The pioneer of boutique hotel design in Mexico, Grupo Habita, has partnered with the global hotel industry's leading guest acquisition platform, SiteMinder, to capitalize on the rise of international tourists in the country.Grupo Habita, which launched at a time when Mexico City struggled to appeal to international leisure travelers, has brought leisure tourism into less-travelled destinations for almost two decades. The hotel group has amassed 12 lifestyle properties across Mexico, as well as two in the United States, and today says technology will allow it to continue innovating and tapping into new source markets."Mexico is witnessing tourism demand increase every year, however, we see that the local hotel sector is largely not yet equipped with new technologies to benefit from that trend, especially small hotel businesses. Fortunately, we are seeing more and more hotels incorporate technology into their strategies, to access more markets and revenue streams, and Grupo Habita wanted to take that step in order to innovate. Our hotel staff now use SiteMinder's platform constantly and are delighted with the possibilities it offers," says Ernesto Solis, Corporate Director of E-Commerce and Revenue Management at Grupo Habita.Mexico ranked as the sixth most visited country in the world in 2017, with 39.3 million international visitors. It is expected to achieve a new record in 2018, having attracted more than 30.5 million international visitors during the first nine months, which is up 6.8% based on year-on-year figures.SiteMinder's director of communications - Latin America, Rocio Herraiz, says, "SiteMinder exists so every hotel has the opportunity to acquire more guests and we are proud to support Grupo Habita in this regard. We know each of their properties will also give the highest priority to personalizing the stay of their guests and, thanks to the automation offered by SiteMinder, they can focus on really enhancing that experience for today's traveler who seeks comfort and detail."Already, Grupo Habita is working on future must-see destinations, including the remodeling of a mansion in Puebla, Mexico, and new properties in both Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.About SiteMinderIn an age of rising choice and accessibility for curious travelers, SiteMinder is the name synonymous with the belief that technology can empower any hotel to win in a consumer-led world and unleash their potential. SiteMinder is the global hotel industry's leading guest acquisition platform, ranked among technology pioneers for its smart and simple solutions that put hotels everywhere their guests are, at every stage of their journey. It's this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of more than 30,000 hotels, across 160 countries, to generate in excess of 80 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels each year. For more information, visit www.siteminder.com.About Grupo HabitaGrupo Habita has a total of 14 hotels; 12 are distributed across nine destinations in Mexico and two are in the United States. In Mexico City, they are: Hotel Habita, Condesa DF, Downtown Mexico, Downtown Beds and Capital District. Across other parts of Mexico, they are: La Purificadora in Puebla, designed by Legorreta + Legorreta; Hotel Boca Chica in Acapulco; Habita MTY in Nuevo Leon; Casa Fayette in Guadalajara; Hotel Escondido in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca; and Maison Couturier and Azucar in Veracruz. In the United States, they are: Hotel Americano in Chelsea, New York, and The Robey in Chicago.Although comparatively small, what Grupo Habita has achieved in 18 years is significant. It is currently the only hotel company in Mexico funded 100% domestically and successfully operates two hotels in United States. For more information, visit www.grupohabita.mx.